Samsung has found itself in hot water in Taiwan with fair trade officials after allegations surfaced that the company hired students to post false, critical reviews of HTC products online.

Samsung, for its part, has stated that the "unfortunate incident" goes against the "fundamental principles" of the company.

If Samsung is found guilty of false advertising, it and its local advertising agency could face fines of up to 25 million Taiwanese dollars. A Fair Trade Commission spokesperson said that the investigation began after a series of complaints were received against Samsung.

More fuel was added to the fire when a Taiwanese website posted documents that allegedly show Samsung had been recruiting students to anonymously offer praise for Samsung devices on the internet and simultaneously criticize HTC offerings.

Samsung's legal troubles with false advertising aren’t the only false advertising allegations the company is fighting. LG sued Samsung in South Korea over claims of false advertising. In that case, Samsung countersued LG for $45 million.

Samsung was also fined in Taiwan earlier this year over misleading advertisements having to do with specifications for the camera on the Galaxy Y Duo.

"I highly doubt Apple is engaging in these types of embarrassing internet campaigns."

??? You said "This mantra of steal, copy, lie and cheat will catch up with these businesses at some point." That is what I replied about, and if you think Apple isn't stealing, copying and lying you are smoking crack. Apple steals and copies tech all the time, most everything they have is copied, just like Samsung and almost every other tech company out there. That is how business works and has worked since the dawn of civilization.

"Look at my original post, had nothing to do with Apple"

Except the part where you mentioned Apple... ??? . I am not defending Samsung, they can drop dead for all I care. I was just responding you your comment "This mantra of steal, copy, lie and cheat will catch up with these businesses at some point." It's serving Samsung well, its serving Apple well as well as many other companies like Oil and pharma companies. You are the one up in arms about Apple and you are the one that mentioned them in the first place... WTF?

I mentioned Apple only to point out that HTC isn't the only one Samsung has targeted. I could have said LG and I still think you would have blasted Apple.

Anyway, I do think it will hurt Samsung (and anyone else who tries it) in the long run. Alienating, insulting and enraging users of other devices online may strengthen brand loyality a little amongst their users, but really makes it tough to bring in new users.

Example, this weekend I do from iP4s to HTC One. Why? Samsung is soar to me because every GS3 user I know has to trash Apple, HTC, etc every chance they get.

I dunno... I go by products and features. The rest is just fluff. Regardless of who sues who, who copies who, or who was the first with what... At the end, you are left with a product choice and a price point to make a purchase. I have a GS3 now, but wont be going with a GS4. Samsung is probably not the way I will go based on some quality issues we have seen here at my office. My S3 has been perfect sicne day one, but a few have died... And 2 of 2 Note2's have both needed repaired withing 1 month of purchase. The S3 was a good phone in its day, but to me I see alot better options out there than the S4. I REALLY hope the 5.5 inch Optimus G pro makes it to Verizon. Other ones high on my list are the Xperia Z, HTC One, and possible the Moto X if it comes out as good as the pre-hype makes it sound.

You seriously think that it isn't almost all companies doing this sort of thing? LOL!

It would be a shock if Apple wasn't doing it just as much as everyone else. Generally companies take a "Don't ask don't tell" approach to this sort of thing, and farm it out to marketing agencies, and with Apple, they seem to have a greater need than anyone to push the social angle of their products since they generally cost more for fewer features, so you almost have to trick people to make a sale. Of course that's not proof, but look around the web for a while with a critical eye then draw your own conclusion.

It's so pervasive you can't even read customer reviews at places like Amazon or Newegg without wondering who these clowns think they're fooling, let alone the old school way of trolling or blogging about your repped company and the competition. These days the marketing agents work harder, slithering into a social community and establishing some participation trying to build up credibility before proceeding their guerrilla marketing campaign.

Frankly I don't think it will hurt Samsung much at all, as they are positioned better than Apple to retain marketshare against the upcoming wave of higher value Chinese phones.

"So, I think the same thing of the music industry. They can't say that they're losing money, you know what I'm saying. They just probably don't have the same surplus that they had." -- Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA